Nationals MP George Christensen calls Green activists 'terrorists'

One of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's MPs has lashed green groups, including Greenpeace, as "terrorists" and in a bizarre speech to Parliament has declared radical green groups as the greatest terror threat to North Queensland.

Nationals MP George Christensen is fighting activists whom he calls "gutless green grubs" opposed to the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal in his electorate. In his speech to Parliament, the outspoken MP said "the greatest terrorism threat in North Queensland, I'm sad to say, comes from the extreme green movement".

Nationals MP George Christensen

Labor's justice spokesman David Feeney rounded on the MP, calling him an "idiot" and demanded he apologise for his "infantile, outrageous and insensitive" comments made after last week's anti-terrorism raids and this week's fatal shooting of a "known terror suspect".

Mr Christensen says groups oppose the expansion and associated jobs out of ideology and not to save the Great Barrier Reef, because they are still campaigning against the proposal, even though an onshore dumping proposal has been found.

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"The eco-terrorists butchered the international tourism market for our greatest tourism attraction, not for the reef but for political ideology," he said.

Mr Christensen said the green groups had threatened to lie in front of trains in cardboard boxes and referred Fairfax Media to the radical Alpha Generation's "Over our Dead Bodies" campaign.

The Over Our Dead Bodies homepage vows to "trash the Aurizon brand, by telling the world Aurizon are actively enabling an environmental catastrophe". Aurizon is the freight company that transports coal. Ben Pennings from the group confirmed that activists had "talked about stopping trains" but said "we're not going to be putting people in harm's way".

In a statement issued after his speech, Mr Christensen referred to the "gutless green germ" activists as "terrorists" five times.

He did not retreat from his comments when contacted by Fairfax Media on Thursday and said the activists might not like coal mining, but had no right to try to shut down a legitimate business.

"It's not illegal to mine or export coal," he said.

Mr Feeney slammed Mr Christensen's "infantile rhetoric", particularly in light of Tuesday's stabbing of two police officers during an encounter in which an 18-year-old "terror suspect" was shot dead.

"There are two police officers still in hospital and this government MP thinks it's OK to throw the word 'terrorism' around as part of a cheap political stunt," Mr Feeney told Fairfax Media. "This is an incredibly insensitive and stupid thing to say, especially given the horrific attack we saw less than 48 hours ago.

"At a time when the men and women of the Australian Defence Force have been pre-deployed to the Middle East, and Australian Intelligence and Law enforcement authorities right across Australia are on alert against terror threats, we should not have to tolerate the infantile rhetoric of Mr Christensen.

"Mr Christensen should immediately apologise for his remarks," he said.

Latika Bourke is a national political reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She has previously worked for ABC and 2UE in Canberra. Latika won the Walkley Award for Young Australian Journalist of the Year in 2010.